Love It Or Leave It

One hesitates; but in the end one cannot resist:

Two beggars are sitting side by side on a street in Rome. One has a Cross in front of him, the other one, the Star of David. Many people go by and look at both beggars, but only put money into the hat of the beggar sitting behind the Cross. A priest comes by, stops and watches throngs of people giving money to the beggar behind the Cross, but none give to the beggar behind the Star of David.

Finally, the priest goes over to the beggar behind the Star of David and says, “My poor fellow, don’t you understand? This is a Catholic country. People aren’t going to give you money if you sit there with a ‘Star of David’ in front of you, especially when you’re sitting beside a beggar who has a Cross. In fact, they would probably give to him just out of spite.”

The beggar behind the ‘Star of David’ listens to the priest, turns to the beggar with the Cross and says: “So look who’s trying to teach the Goldstein brothers about marketing?”

And now . . .

MY COUNTRY, RIGHT OR WRONG

Frank: ‘After listening to this audio clip, I feel so sad for our country’s morality and my children’s future. Our country has become a curse for the world’s underclass.’

☞ Ours is the greatest country that ever was. We are rightly proud of so many things. But anyone who has studied history knows we have never been perfect and often, far, far from it. It is not anti-American to try to see ourselves accurately and hold ourselves to a high standard. In fact, nothing could be more American.

In that spirit, you may find the above-linked audio worth your time. You knew about slavery and about our treatment of the American Indian; you have your opinions about how grateful to us the Vietnamese should or should not be. But in this interview, John Perkins gives us even more to ponder. Could some of this be true?